The Dollmage

I took the baby out of her pregnancy doll, and then in delight saw that there was another baby inside. “Twins, Renoa.You promised her twins!”

The whispers of the crowd grew to murmurs.

Renoa smiled in triumph at Annakey. “How many babies are there in Annakey’s doll?”

I looked. “Only one,” I said. “A boy. There is the contest. Renoa, you are my successor.”

“But ... but that was not meant to be my contest doll,” Annakey stammered. “I only made it to help Prim—”

“What does it matter?” Renoa said. “Finally we have seen that I am the true Dollmage.”

I faced the crowd.

“There will be a feast. Annakey, at the feast you must promise that from now on you will not make any dolls.”

Annakey glanced up at the mountains.

“What about the robber people?” she asked.“I have a plan. If you will only let me do one more thing.”

“I have proof enough, now, Annakey,” I said gently. “Be humbled. Come, and serve your new Dollmage.”

What was in Annakey’s eyes at that moment? I told myself she was merely sad to lose.

“I see now that this is why God gave you a frowning promise doll — because you were going to be sad to lose.”

“Dollmage,” she said, “if only you will let me make the dolls necessary to chase the robber people away.”

“Come, Renoa,” I said, going out the door.

Renoa followed, and so also did Annakey. I did not stop to hear her, but she followed me, protesting all the time. It was shameful that she would degrade herself so, and I said as much. “Remember your promise to be happy—”

I stopped short. A wail was coming from the house of Deen and Prim Highchimney. A wail, oh, the wail of unspeakable pain, and it did not stop, no, it did not stop, not even when I rushed back into the house to see what was the trouble.

This was the trouble: Prims baby girl had died.

Chapter 11

Inscription on the Mercy doll:

Wherever possible, the people will try to extend mercy to the wrongdoer.

Now who was the Dollmage? I ask you. Was it the one who made twin babies in the pregnancy doll? Twins were born. Or was it the one who made a baby boy? The boy lived. Now, some of you already feared Annakey. Had she, in her carelessness, caused the baby girl to die? Had she drowned Roily the cow and burned Follownot the sheep? Why was it something bad happened every time Annakey made a doll? And were the rumors true that she was a promise breaker? While Prim wailed her voice into a whimper and a whisper, the villagers conferred with me. They wanted me to name Renoa as Dollmage.

“Have I not been telling you all along?” I asked, but I said it without conviction. I said it, remembering the rubber boots and the bees in Wifebury’s potting shed. I said it, remembering the sheepcote. I said it, remembering that I had created your fear of Annakey.

“Dollmage,” said Annakey, “please. I have a plan. Only give me a little longer and I will chase away the robber people.” Her face was pale. She swallowed over and over.

“Hush,” I said. She thought I meant her, but I meant everyone. “Hush.The full moon is not until tonight. Annakey will have until moonrise to make her contest doll.”

There was a silence and then an outcry. I held up a hand and pointed to a high, treeless ridge. There stood a party of robber people, at least fifty strong. When the robber people organize enough to gather themselves, it is grave danger. The outcry ceased. A few women ran for their children. Wifebury put his finger and thumb into the sockets of his eyes, then looked again, blinking.

I spoke urgently to Annakey, in the hearing of all of you. “Until dusk I give you to make your contest doll.” I could hear muffled weeping somewhere in the village, and then more. It grew until it was a chorus of weeping.

“Tell them to be silent and brave, or they shall have my wrath,” I hissed to the men.

The crowd dispersed. Annakey ran away on silent feet.

“Stupid woman,” Renoa said to me. “Why cannot you make up your mind?”

It broke my heart to have her say so. I had let her be proud and venomous to others, and now she was spending her venom on me. “You speak to me so, Renoa?” I said haughtily-

“You know I am your successor,” she said.

“You are. So, do you have a plan, as Annakey does, to save the village from the robber people?”

“I have a plan. It is for you to give me all the relics of your power. I will move into your house, and it will be my house, and the dolls will be mine, and you will go away from me, where you cannot suck the magic out of me like an old leech. You are old, Dollmage. That is why the village is not safe. It is because you are old, and your powers are gone.”

Then I knew. It was as she was speaking to me that I knew how it was the robber people could find us, even when the village doll was hidden from them.

“The village doll is no longer making the story,” I said, more to myself than to Renoa. “I see it now. Annakey must have her own village doll somewhere. That is where she is going, even now.”